The past several decades have seen a dramatic growth in the fast food industry. As competition in the industry has become more intense, many fast food retailers have been forced to cut costs by consolidating and centralizing their operations. Consequently, most large fast food franchises today prepare their products at central kitchens, from which they are shipped out en mass to remote franchise outlets for sale to the public.
While centralized franchising operations have reduced the operating costs of fast food establishments, the extensive shipping and handling operations inherent in those systems have presented a need for more effective methods and products for maintaining the freshness and quality of fast food items. In particular, there is a great need for products and methods that are more effective than the products and methods known to the prior art in preserving the flavor and moisture content of hamburger and other meat products.
At present, numerous compositions are known to the prior art for moisturizing or tenderizing meat or meat products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,522 (Wofford et al.) discloses a composition and method of treating meat to prevent moisture loss during cooking. The composition contains vinegar, sodium chloride (table salt), and various other ingredients. U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,963 (Greenspan) discloses a method for tenderizing cut meat portions. The tenderizing solution has a seasoning mix which contains salt, sugar, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, dextrose, monosodium glutamate, beef extract and spices. U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,312 (Mason et al.) discloses a method for retaining moisture in meat by using a dry mix containing salt and carrageenan in a certain weight ratio. The salt is of a specified particle size. In some embodiments of the invention, various spices are added to the mix, including sugar and food coloring.
Many compositions are also known to the prior art which impart flavor to meat or meat products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,298 (Hussein et al.) discloses various flavoring compositions. Some of these compositions contain in various combinations hydrogenated vegetable or animal fats or oils, onion and garlic flavors, salt, and meat flavors. U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,590 (Williams et al.) discloses marinated meat products with a glazed coating. One such product is chicken coated with a mixture containing dextrose, corn syrup solids, and garlic and onion salts.
Several compositions are also known which are suitable for imparting a consistency to meat products, or for maintaining the natural consistency of those products. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,650 (Keszler) discloses a curing and binding agent used to form a bacon-like meat product. In one embodiment, the agent contains salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate, and hydrolyzed plant protein. U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,569 (McGinley et al.) discloses bulking agents for aqueous foods, including a salad dressing containing sugar, salt, cellulose, onion powder, and garlic powder. The reference also discloses a frozen dessert containing corn syrup with 80% solids and sugar.
Finally, a number of prior art compositions have been developed which are specifically suitable for tenderizing, moisturizing, preserving, and adding flavor to hamburger patties. U.S. Pat. No. 2,650,167 (Garsaud), for example, discloses a method for preparing fresh, frozen, seasoned hamburger patties by combining ground beef, salt, ice water, and dehydrated onions. U.S. Pat. No. 1,829,431 (Allen) discloses a seasoning for ground meat which contains finely divided sugar, edible fatty material, extracts of peppers, and the essential oils of spices, such as coconut oil, cocoa butter, or peanut oil.
Conventional methods of cooking meat, including the methods of the references described above, call for the addition of flavoring to meat before it is cooked. In the case of hamburger patties, the flavoring is conventionally mixed with the raw ground beef before it is formed into a pattie. However, the presence of flavorings in the raw meat can interfere adversely with the natural chemical processes that occur when meat is cooked. For example, the addition of salt to ground beef prior to cooking can elevate the surface temperature of a hamburger pattie to a higher temperature than it would otherwise attain, which may result in excessive charring. Other commonly used flavorings, such as onion powder, can act as a desiccant during cooking, causing the cooked product to be excessively dry. Hence, there is a need for a method of preparing cooked meat products that will retain the moisture and natural juices of meat.
Furthermore, the addition of flavoring to meat prior to cooking can dramatically increase the bacteria content of the meat. Dried onion, for example, tends to have a very high natural bacteria count. When dried onion is mixed with raw hamburger meat in accordance with the prior art methods, the bacterial content of the meat can be increased by several orders of magnitude, thus increasing the risk of food poisoning. The problem is especially serious when the raw patties are not cooked immediately after they are formed, since the bacteria then undergoes rapid propagation.
Many commercial food processors compensate for the bacteria problem by treating onion and other spices with pesticides and food preservatives. Aside from the obvious health risks these methods present, the additives adversely affect the natural flavor of the spices. Thus, there is presently an unfulfilled need in the art for a method of preparing hamburgers and similar meat products that obviates the need for flavorings with chemical additives and that can accommodate the use of organically grown flavorings.
Another problem with prior art compositions and methods used to flavor meat products is their failure to meet the demands that current commercial practices place on them. To date, the prior art compositions and methods used to flavor, tenderize, moisturize, and preserve meat have enjoyed some success when used in food prepared at retail outlets, but have proven inadequate to meet the more severe demands placed on the quality of meat products by the extensive shipping and handling inherent in centralized franchising systems. In particular, these methods and compositions have not been successful in preserving the moisture, flavor and texture of freshly cooked hamburger over a prolonged period of time, and have been only moderately successful in controlling the growth rate of harmful bacteria that commonly lead to food poisoning.
A further problem encountered in central franchising operations is the large amounts of smoke and oil generated by cooking hamburger patties at retail outlets. This problem arises from the fact that hamburger patties have traditionally been shipped raw for subsequent cooking at the retail outlets. However, recent provisions of the Clean Air Act and similar federal and state legislation place limitations on the amount of air pollution that can be produced by fast food franchises. In areas such as downtown Los Angeles, which have had difficulty conforming with the pollution standards imposed by such legislation, these restrictions are especially severe. Furthermore, the Clean Air Act has provisions which require "nonconforming" areas of the country to employ the Best Available Technology (BAT) for reducing pollution emissions. Hence, there is, and will continue to be, a great need for new methods of producing fast food that will reduce the amount of smoke and oil produced at retail outlets.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of applying flavoring compositions to meat products which will improve the quality of the cooked meat by retaining the moisture, freshness, and flavor of the meat without interfering with the natural chemical processes that occur during the cooking of the meat.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide new compositions and methods of flavoring, tenderizing, moisturizing, and preserving meat products, particularly hamburger patties, which will minimize bacterial content and bacterial growth in meat and which are capable of meeting the demands of a centralized franchising system.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of flavoring meat products which will obviate the need for flavorings which contain pesticides and chemical additives.
Finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of reducing the amount of smoke and oil generated at fast food retail outlets from the cooking of hamburger patties.
These and other objects are accomplished by the composition and method of the present invention as set forth below.